So I have been, comparatively, out of commision to a large extent the last two years. Work and getting a graduate degree took precedence over life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and all that jazz. Here is what I did in the last week and two modular instructions for units I did (sometime in the last several years, probably more recently, but memory is a fallible, short-term, gnat like thing for me) no guarantees they are not redundant.

So Himanshu Agrawal asked a week or two ago about doing diagrams for a bookmark I posted pictoral diagrams for and I said sure that sounds great. Wow are his diagrams wonderful. I did not expect anything so wonderfully done and really appreciate the work he put into it. Diagramming is a talent I don’t have and Himanshu’s diagrams are concise and even are colored. He is on facebook and flickr.

Link to an amazing dragon done for Dell computers from his flickr pics-amazing!

Centerfold-The organizers really worked hard and so many people praised the bag it wasn’t even funny. So thanks to everyone who is willing to put in the work. Positives-I liked the lack of ticketing, but that may just be personal preference. The hotel let the rooms be used later than initially indicated. The bar was great, drinkable coffee a dollar and if you wanted it with a bit of chemical happiness that was very reasonable. The DJ in the bar was great. They organized shuttles to the exhibit. Negatives-Just the smells in the hotel, it was not clean the smell of stale cigarette smell was overwhelming, but I also am hypersensitive to these things. Indiana reststops scare me I actually took photos in a stall just so I’d have proof of the stuff I saw etched into the stall walls and door. So a thank you to everyone that ran it, I know it’s a boatload of work. To the people I met-you were wonderful, keep playing around. To everyone I should have met but didn’t, hopefully I will some you at some future time. Shar’s presentation of some 5OSME slides reminded James and I how awesome that was. There was a lot of 5OSME people there. The guests were Robert Lang, Tomoko Fuse, and David Brill. Took a cat class with David. Missed Tomoko and Langs classes cause I can’t tell time.

Finally these are some of the curved pieces I’ve been working on. Getting larger is an ongoing challenge of mine, as is thinking of making things decent for display instead of everything being tests and getting distracted by the next shiny idea.

So what have I done? Singapore-Will elaborate later, but a thanks to Deb (coffee, allergy meds, and dopamine?), Elsa (helped me find my classroom and more), Cheng Chit (so much, organization, tour guide, and great help), Char (great suggestions, much to mull over), Shri (best and most helpful roommate ever), the Demaine’s (for the Huffman talk and making me think about different curves again), Patsy (for seriously doing tons of organization and being a workaholic), Eileen-for so much work into making things run smoothly, Joseph-well he puts up with my crap, Miri-some good conversations, Eves and Mark-clarification of sine curvy corrugation issues. That’s all for now although I’ll feel horribly guilty later for leaving people out. Wisconsin played with circles, Minneapolis got to see a nonfolding friend Mags and Eric a folding friend. He was great and I owe him a big thanks. Now to the folding….soo the Bauhaus circles that are fantabulous curvy magic were pictured in a presentation by Eric, so I made one (they were also rediscovered by Thoki Yenn). As is my ilk I quickly got bored with it as such and have been playing with pleating, cutting, pulling apart and collapsing to make sharp defined curves, and changing the shapes (which I brilliantly noticed today, a month later, in the abstract booklet from 50sme, seriously could I be any more oblivious?) Not all are from circles, and I have a lot of exploration to do to find the limitations. I will fully state that most likely any tweaking I do to the form has been done and better, but the reality is I don’t want to search out what other people have done until I play myself. So yes it probably is redundant, but it is a curvy fun redundancy.

Warning: These are rough pictoral diagrams and as such if you are a very basic folder they may be a problem. If using cami paper start with the colored side down.

1. Fold paper in half on diagonal both ways, open, and flip over. If using cami use colored side down.

2. Opposite points to center and flip over.

3. Fold the edge to the center diagonal. Let the paper underneath flip out from the underside. Don’t crease. Do the same on the other side.

4. Fold down in half.

5. Fold the bottom tip of the top flap to meet the top center.

6. The next step might be the most problematic. You will be taking the raw edges of the bottom you folded up and making them meet the raw edges underneath and then rabbit earing the middle flap.

7. Symmetrically squash the center flap.

8. Mountain fold across from were my two fingers are pointing to. This is a horizontal line above what will be the nose.

9. You will pinch the fold just made and form a valley fold about an eighth of an inch above it. This is a personal taste fold. It affects the amount of paper for the eyes of the dog.

10. Refer to the pics below to fold down the eyes at an angle. How close to the center is a personal preference. I fold to the edge of the crease just made from a point above the edge of the nose, on either side.

So for some stuff for Singapore I’ve been playing with Sine Curves and this is some of the stuff that are outshoots of that. So the paper I was working on was on rotation and compression limitation of curved corrugations and these are the tests. Eventually I will do a post on the results, but there is still a ton to do.

Where they rotate through has a big difference on the degrees of rotation. I call it spine one and spine two. Spine two goes through the maximum of a spine curve and can be rotated a lot more. The corrugation below is using spine two.

It’s really hard to see but this had some great textural and rotational properties that got me all excited, that and I wanted a choker and matching bracelet out of copper.

Standard disclaimer: The simpler the unit the more likely it’s been done before, please post information and links if you’ve seen it, done it, or something very similar. Creative commons applies to all and have a happy new year.

30 units

12 and 6 units respectively

1. Fold in half. 2. flip over and fold bottom edge to center, same on top. 3. What it should look like.

So I have ended up on a tangent that I would eventually like to use for posting tutorials for my students and have lectures students can view if absent. So I decided to try to create an origami tutorial. I may have done this design before I sadly don’t remember. Editing is a challenging business, as is seeing yourself (in all your redundant glory) on camera. So for those who do post tutorials online kudos, it’s a lot harder than it looks. I will within the next week post about Italy, but this comes first since it’s done. Bear with me as it is my first attempt at video instruction and it is not polished all pretty, plus I am using the camera in my mac which doesn’t allow for as much flexibility in filming. Youtube said it’s processing so here you go, remember creative commons applies to all unless stated otherwise. Happy holidays.

Below is an corrugated automata that doesn’t inch the way I originally plan, but sometimes the best laid plans fail.

What I envisioned and what happened very different. Needed at least 6″ more of paper to get the extra knot/twist it and it wasn’t worth doing it with this paper which is not good and likes to rip. It is a watercolor paper that also has no memory and is not good for my purposes:( Oh well, sometimes it justn’t turn out the way you want. That said Italy in 3 days:)